Reflections on the new and old year as good heating keeps the winter at bay

Sunday

Dec 30, 2012 at 12:01 AMDec 30, 2012 at 6:45 AM

The start of the new year in the northern hemisphere comes at a time that does not naturally lend itself to reflection.

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

—Christina Rossetti

The start of the new year in the northern hemisphere comes at a time that does not naturally lend itself to reflection.

Life was traditionally too hard for rumination when the major task was to keep one's body temperature up. Nevertheless, we long ago invented central heating, and so during these frigid days at the start of the new year we now have the luxury of kicking back to reflect on the months just past and the ones soon to come.

In New Bedford, that reflection takes me to the first year of the Jon Mitchell era, or perhaps his interregnum, should Scott Lang decide local public life calls him back.

It's safe to say that as the new mayor's freshman effort comes to a close, the city has been focused on two great goals: rebuilding its long-troubled school system and building a South Terminal port that it's hoped will be the replacement for the now officially moribund clothing and textile industries.

Mitchell, in a way, is a quirky mayor. As low-key as Scott Lang was intense, and as under-stated as Fred Kalisz was enthusiastic, Mitchell even so is a very determined figure.

In the year past, he willingly took on the entrenched school system culture and wholeheartedly embraced the terminal solution, first engineered by Lang and Economic Development Council Director Matt Morrissey.

One thing Mitchell has wisely (if inauthentically) done is separate himself from the continued flounderings of the New Bedford City Council, which during the past year, in the midst of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, gave itself a 44 percent pay raise, along with a guaranteed annual cost of living increase.

The new year will reveal whether any of these councilors, new or old, pays a price for making themselves far more comfortable during a time when so many of their fellow city residents continued to struggle. And yet, maybe the favors the councilors have done for some of those citizens will pull them and their pay raises through. That's politics.

As for Mayor Mitchell, whether he will be able to succeed on his twin monumental tasks is yet to be determined. The coming year's hiring of the new school superintendent will tell a lot, though to be more accurate, the new school chief's leadership abilities in the following years will tell much more.

Also telling for the mayor will be the resolution of the EPA's plan to install a CAD cell in the harbor in order to pave the way for the South Terminal.

The terminal, as our local officials have religiously reminded us, is not just for the turbine port, but for a bulk cargo port in general. The official assurances notwithstanding, like a lot of locals, I'll wait to see how many cargo ships come through that hurricane barrier and whether the cash-strapped EPA plans will short-change the city in order to finally be done with the harbor cleanup.

On the state and national scene, the issues for the coming year actually look more ominous than do the local ones. The city, to most SouthCoasters, seems about to bloom with the UMass and Route 18 re-engineered downtown. But the Patrick administration, beset by the scandals in the state crime lab and public health department incompetence, is presently looking a bit unfocused, both on SouthCoast and lots of other things.

Gov. Deval Patrick did recently visit Washington on commuter rail. And mass transit projects are great job creators for an era of high unemployment. But the Tea Party Congress doesn't seem interested in Keynesian economic solutions. Don't hold your breath.

On the national scene, the winter storm sky looks ominous.

With all the hype about the "fiscal cliff," it's hard to know just how dire the consequences will be by the passing of a mere calendar page. But in the weeks following New Year's Day, our local economy will certainly not be immune if the average taxpayer is $40 lighter in their weekly paycheck. And with so many area men and women long shut out of gainful employment, Greater New Bedford's vital social services safety net could soon become too tattered to keep any midwinter at bay. That could put pressure on everything from local law enforcement to small businesses.

The country is said to be in a fragile recovery, so much of what kind of a new year SouthCoast experiences will depend on policies hammered out, or not, in Washington. The signs indeed point to more partisan gridlock as the nation seems to have permanently settled into two deeply divided camps, one progressive, one conservative, each with the backing of about half the population.

Massachusetts will hold a special Senate election in the new year, and since fewer urban voters turn out in off-cycle elections, Scott Brown or another Republican could again be headed to Washington to represent the Bay State.

Let's hope that whoever heads there, Democrat or Republican, can help move the country forward and transcend their ideological blinders. Otherwise it could be a bleak new year indeed.

We can only hope for 365 days that go in the other direction.

Jack Spillane is the executive news editor of The Standard-Times and southcoasttoday.com. He can be reached at 508-979-4472 or jspillane@s-t.com.